Franklins Solicitors LLP

We contacted the conveyancing department yesterday regarding issues with my daughter's house move. We live in Australia. Managed to speak to the person responsible for dealing with the move, insisted she send us the information necessary for us to assist with speeding up the matter. This person assured us that she will send documents through via email within a day. It is day 2 and we have not received anything from her. When we spoke to her on the phone from Australia, we were insistence that she acts quickly as this may impact on my daughter's house purchase. Potentially she could lose the purchase after having already waiting for 8 months for Franklins to conduct the purchase. We are totally disappointed and and dissatisfied with the conveyancing team and their attitude with the handling of properties purchase. We are surprised with the number of negative reviews they are still in business. The next stage would be for us to contact the legal ombudsman regarding their practice.

I found them awfully slow and almost impossible to contact them. We had to delay the exchange for a week due to my solicitor's inability to communicate. I had to chase them number of times during that 3-4 months period, sometimes estate agents had to nudge them. Overall they made the process a lot of stressful.

DO NOT USE THIS FIRM! I had to report them to the Legal Ombudsman who agreed Franklin’s offer a poor service. It took Franklin’s (Denise Watson)seven months to complete on two properties even though there was no chain. They lost documents and took over two years to send through NHBC documentation. They had an IT breach and we received scam emails for a few months showing our personal information from the hacker. This meant we had to change our internet provider to prevent further scam emails. They do not record their telephone conversations, so whatever you instruct them verbally is not noted and therefore you cannot hold them to account over promised verbal instructions you receive or give them! BEWARE!

Solicitors tagged in
this review

Scott Wright

Rosanna Stimson

12/01/2024

Dear Heather, Thank you for your feedback. As you have already stated, you reported this matter to the Legal Ombudsman who have conducted an extensive review of this matter and the way it was handled. We are disappointed to see that a number of the points mentioned in your review are factually incorrect and also omit key information, including: • At no stage did the Legal Ombudsman agree that the service was poor • Your review mentions Scott Wright, who was not involved in your matter • Your review also does not mention that the Legal Ombudsman review found that we took all reasonable steps to keep your data safe and secure. We take data security very seriously and are one of the only law firms to have achieved and maintain the Cyber Essentials Plus Certification As you are aware, we have taken the necessary steps to remedy any issues found by the Legal Ombudsman. We take constructive feedback on board and are always looking at ways we can improve the experience for our clients and embed this into our training and processes. However, we believe that your review does not accurately reflect your experience for the reasons listed above. Regards, Rosanna

Professional and efficient. I would definitely recommend and would not hesitate to use them again.

After a poor experience with an on line firm I was pleasantly surprised by the completely opposite experience with Franklin's. Kris Raca's team especially Lauren Collins have been helpful, available and commumicative throughout the whole process. Each time I phoned I got through to a person who was able to respond to all my queries. I could not ask for more.

I used Franklins recently for a house purchase. I found the whole team to be extremely helpful and professional. I dealt mainly with Rebecca Jones & Scott Wright. I would definitely recommend them to anyone, Rebecca especially, has been very helpful

Very difficult sale many problems but all dealt with efficiently and with friendly service happy with costs

Historically, I have bought and sold many properties. I have had some good experiences with Franklins and other solicitors in the past but, to be honest, this sale over the last 10 months has been difficult and my experience has not been good. First of all, let's agree that Leasehold is rarely straight forward, I accept this point. BUT... 1.The Lee Holmes team at Franklins, for most of the 10 months, refused to give me updates and for most of this time didn't return my calls. 2.The Lee Holmes team did not send me e mails or messages either, with updates or information. 3.The LH team complained of being very busy and neglected to open this file until they were chased and prompted to do so,normally by a call from either myself or Susan Swann at Haart.Emails didn't work. This normally did result in some action and progress. .Because of this we were given little choice, Susan Swann and myself became more and more hands on, particulary myself, to assist the sale by getting very involved in, and doing things that should have been done by the solicitors. I became very engrossed in dealing with the freeholder and the land registry. I had to get involved otherwise the sale would have stalled and stagnated each time. I have never felt it necessary to be involved to this extent in the past and this is not what I was expecting and please, this is not to be confused with interference in anyway. I would have happily kept out of it! What we did was paramount to getting this deal through, and I know that to be true. I do think the team were, for what ever reason, neglectful and laxadaisical. It may not be the individuals' fault, but I do resent being "left hanging" on several occasions without feedback. There were problems at your end, feel free to share them, it may help me/us understand.

I approached Franklins after being recommended them by my mortgage advisor. I have to say I have heard some horror stories about solicitors and was not looking forward to the process. But, Franklins, in particular Emma Sinclair changed my mind completely. Emma took our case on with the upmost professionalism. She was always available to speak to and easy to get hold of. She kept us up-to date at each stage of the process, explaining things we didn’t understand and advising us along the way. She worked so hard to get us into our new house and we cannot thank her enough. I would recommend Franklins Solicitors to anyone. Thank you so much Emma.

Felicity, Georgia and Caroline have all been superb. Great communication throughout a long winded sale. I worked in New build sales for 20 years dealing with house purchase conveyance for our purchasers so I have experienced dealing with many solicitors over that time. This is a great team I’d be happy to recommend them to anyone. Thank you all.